Dolly Parton has Ed Balls in a spin

We ran into Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls last week, and couldn’t resist inquiring how Labour’s unexpected but ever-so-popular owls policy was working out. “I don’t know, the owls passed me by,” Balls replied, “but Dolly Parton didn’t”.

“Are you as big a Parton fan as us?” asked the Londoner in surprise. “Yes!” said the piano-playing MP. “And I’ve met her. She came to see me when I was education secretary and I have a photograph to prove it on my wall.

She asked me for some money for her children’s reading foundation, and as she did so she put her hand on me and said ‘I’m sorry to hit on you’.

“I told her, ‘Dolly, being hit on by you is the proudest moment of my career’.”